If you are thinking about the worst leaders of all time, you’ve got to consider this guy.

He was born into a wealthy, powerful family, and was trained by his overbearing father. The two of them, father and son, ruled together for about a dozen years. When his father died, he became the sole proprietor of the family business of governing.

He came to the throne of the world’s most awesome empire at the height of its power, making repeated promises that he would be a great ruler and reinforce the values of the civilization. And then he promptly betrayed it. He trashed norms, displaced trusted leaders, shocked people with his statements, and, most of all, he demanded total loyalty. He held lavish events completely at odds with the traditions of the empire. He even changed his name to signify that his views alone were to be revered. In other words, he built a cult with himself and his family at the center.

And what a family! His wife was so striking that her name meant, “The Beautiful Woman Has Come.” But she could not satisfy him. He had multiple wives, with whom he had numerous children. He may have taken some of his daughters as wives as well.  

In order to ensure the loyalty of his sycophants, he moved the empire’s center of power to the south, away from the traditional capital. He built a new city, using cheap materials that would not withstand the test of time. His followers eagerly traveled there to show fealty, but the traditional leaders of the empire stayed home, refusing to kneel.  

He ignored the empire’s interests abroad. Allies repeatedly sent him letters requesting aid and support, but he refused to read them. They also complained that when he sent them gifts, they were made of insultingly cheap gold plate. We don’t know whether he ever had any significant foreign relations successes, because he was entirely focused on his internal image.  

He called himself, “the son of the sole God.” His subjects called him a heretic, insane, “the enemy,” and “that criminal.” We don’t know very much about him, because after he died his people decided that his reign was so abysmal, his legacy so toxic, that all evidence that he ever existed should be wiped from the face of the earth. They pulled down his southern city and repurposed the cheap blocks for repairing the damage he had inflicted. They chipped his name off the records. They defaced his image, smashed his temples, pulled down his statues, and desecrated his tomb. His children changed their names.  

He was the tenth Pharaoh of the eighteenth dynasty of Egypt. Historians who have combed through the shards of his record concur he caused a significant downturn in Egypt’s fortunes and an erosion in respect for the government. It would take the creation of a new dynasty, Egypt’s nineteenth, to repair the damage that he wrought.  

His name – may the Gods smite me for uttering it – was Akhenaten.  

His is a cautionary tale. It’s about what happens when a great empire falls into the hands of a psychopathic narcissist.